A common problem in competitive figure skating is that in certain maneuvers that require the skater to vigorously plant the forward toe edge of the skate blade into the ice to create lift or take off in order to carry out certain actions while air-borne, typically rotating or spinning, a fair amount of slippage occurs between the forward toe edge of the skate blade and the ice surface at the blade-to-ice interface. Certain of these maneuvers are commonly referred to as the toe loop, the flip and the lutz, of the double, triple and quadruple variety. This slippage robs the skater of lift off power, which concomitantly compromises the skater's ability to fly farther, higher, or longer through the air. Power skating also suffers from slippage at the blade-to-ice interface.
Therefore, a need exists in the art for reducing the slippage that commonly occurs at the blade-to-ice interface and to improve the ice-gripping capabilities of ice skate blades.